New Delhi, June 24
Pronouncing NSE guilty of abusing dominant market position, the Competition Commission has asked the bourse to pay a penalty of Rs 55.5 crore within 30 days and also immediately stop subsidising its services.

In its order, passed last evening and dispatched today, the competition watchdog said that there was "a clear intention on the part of NSE to eliminate competitors in the relevant market."

Accordingly, the CCI has imposed a penalty of Rs 55.5 crore, which is 5 per cent of the bourse’s three-year average turnover, the order said.

In addition, NSE has been directed to "cease and desist from unfair pricing, exclusionary conduct and unfairly using its dominant position in other markets to protect the relevant CD (currency derivative) market with immediate effect."

In its 170-page order, CCI also asked NSE to maintain separate accounts for each segment with effect from April 1, 2012, and modify its zero price policy in the CD market and levy appropriate transaction costs within 60 days.

The exchange has also been asked to provide its brokers free choice to select the trading software systems for the CD segment, under the overall supervision of market regulator SEBI.

The CCI order follows a complaint filed by its rival MCX-SX, which had accused NSE of abusing its dominant market position to corner business in CD segment.

MCX Stock Exchange MD & CEO Joseph Massey welcomed the order and said that it would ‘safeguard new entrants and ensure innovators are not decimated by existing entities which have deep pockets and more powerful.’ Massey said that MCX-SX would now claim compensation for the losses and damages it has incurred due to predatory pricing by NSE.

The final order from CCI follows a majority order passed by the Commission on May 25, along with which it had also issued a notice to the bourse before quantifying the penalty.— PTI

n The CCI order follows a complaint filed by its rival MCX-SX, which had accused NSE of abusing its dominant market position to corner business in CD segment.

n 5 per cent of the bourse’s three-year average turnover

New Delhi, June 24
Days after a CAG draft report said his firm got out of turn favours from the oil ministry and its technical arm DGH, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani today met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

No details were available on what India's wealthiest man discussed with the Prime Minister. Reliance Industries (RIL) offered no comments on the meeting.

Separately, RIL wrote to the oil ministry requesting for a copy of the draft report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), after which the relevant portions of the draft CAG report were provided to the company, sources said.

RIL shares have fallen 8 per cent since the draft CAG report first appeared in media on June 13. — PTI

Seoul, June 24
Apple Inc has filed a lawsuit in South Korea, claiming Samsung Electronics Co Ltd infringed upon several patents, a court official said on Friday, in the companies' latest legal tussle over smartphone and tablet devices.

The litigation comes as Samsung filed patent suits in South Korea, Japan and Germany in April over the US company's iPhone and iPad after Apple claimed Samsung's Galaxy line "slavishly" copied its products.

Global technology companies are locked in a web of litigation as they try to defend their shares of the booming tablet and smartphone market.

Last week, a lawyer for Apple said in a U.S. court that executives "at the highest levels" of both companies are in talks about patent litigation.

This was after the judge referenced the close business relationship between the two companies to resolve the case through alternative dispute resolution outside the court.

Apple, which was Samsung's second-biggest client after Japan's Sony Corp last year, became the South Korean firm's biggest customer in the first quarter, mainly by purchasing semiconductors, according to Samsung's quarterly report.

Samsung is one of the fastest growing smartphone makers on the back of a boom in Android operating system and has emerged as Apple's strongest competitor in the tablet market.

A spokesman for Apple Korea declined to comment on the patent law suit and reiterated the company's previous stance.

"It is no coincidence that Samsung's latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging," the spokesman said.— PTI

The Indian stock markets have been doing nothing much since the beginning of this year. The BSE Sensex opened the year at a level of 20,552.03 points and within the first couple of days made the year's high of 20,664.8 points so far. The Sensex closed on Friday, June 24 at 18,240.

Our primary markets over the last five months have not done much. The quality of issues seems to be getting worse and the type of issues hitting the market is by and large of a standard which could be described as below par.

The performance of these issues post listing is clearly an indication of the quality and the effort that has been taken to sell the issue using ‘friendly’ intermediaries.

There are three types of issues which come to the market. The first is issues which have fundamentals and have businesses which are proven and the company has a track record to talk of.

The second type is of companies where the business looks fine, the track record also looks ok but the credentials of the promoter are not well known. The third type is where one is not sure of the business prospects, the track record is virtually non-existent and the asking price is not only expensive but extremely expensive. The majority of issues hitting the markets seems to be from this category.

The present market is seeing a flood of issues of the third category and one finds that these issues get subscribed only by the HNI (high networth individuals) and retail category. This subscription is "managed by friendly intermediaries on a fee or a discount" and the issue sails through. Most analysts do not recommend these issues and would ask investors to stay away from them, yet they do well in subscription.

Post listing many of these companies last a couple of days trading at respectable levels before disappearing.

What is the modus operandi of these companies tapping the markets? The issuer of capital or the company approaches a merchant banker who in turn arranges an intermediary at a huge discount which varies from 25-40% of the issue size to garner subscription and also take the issue through.

There are arrangements where an exit route is also given to investors and the share price remains above issue price for a given number of days. In some of these issues, you even get some friendly FII's to put in their bids. These FII's sell on listing day and are out of the company in no time. The listing day is a high drama day and one finds volumes of 10-20 times the size of IPO being traded that day.

The delivery percentage of traded volume could be as low as single digit with maybe 2-3% being delivery. However if this delivery of shares is taken as a percentage of IPO size it varies between 60-85%.

Once shares have changed hands there is sharp upswing in prices and then the share comes down to ultimately disappear in the setting sun. There are other issues where the fundamentals seem good and the business extremely profitable. These issues are hyped out of proportion and meet the same fate.

The state of the market has ensured that quality issues get delayed or postponed. The issues which are below quality are the ones hitting the market and therefore one sees the performance we are talking about.

To improve the present scenario, the following steps should be taken. Firstly, the track record of merchant bankers which SEBI is talking about should be immediately introduced where details of the issue, subscription levels and stock performance in the first week and till date are mentioned. Financial performance of the company post listing should be mentioned.

Secondly, there should be a circuit filter imposed on listing day which could be at 20% or 25%, so that the sharp intraday volatility is curbed.

Thirdly, the valuations at which companies offer their shares should be reasonable, offering scope for appreciation in the medium term and these valuations should be justifiable. These small measures would help in restoring confidence in the primary market.

(The author is associated with Kris Financial Services. Views expressed are his own)

Bhubaneswar, June 24
Temporary suspension of land acquisition for Posco project in the proposed plant site area near Paradip should not be considered as ‘deadlock’, Orissa chief secretary B K Patnaik today said.

“Stoppage of land acquisition for the time being should not be considered as a deadlock over Posco project,” he said.

Patnaik, who reviewed the progress made so far in the Rs 52,000-crore project, said the state government would acquire the required land peacefully.

Revenue Divisional Commissioner (RDC), central division, Jagastsinghpur district collector, DGP and other senior officials attended the review meeting.

Rejecting allegation of use of force for land acquisition, Patnaik said it is responsibility of the district administration to make people aware about benefits of the project.

“We are hopeful agitating people will understand the ground reality and cooperate with administration,” he said. Meanwhile, steel and mines minister Raghunath Mohanty said there was no need for an anti-Posco agitation as the villagers were coming forward to give their land.

“However, some people are preventing villagers from giving their land for the project,” he said. Work for the rehabilitation colony has already started, Mohanty said.— PTI

Ludhiana, June 24
Of every 100 Audi cars sold in India, as many as eight are sold in Punjab and Chandigarh. Residents here mostly buy the Q line, a middle-end model priced between Rs 64 lakh and Rs 75 lakh.

Michael Perschke, Head, Audi India said this while launching the second showroon in state. He also launched a new model.

Michael added, ‘‘The opening of this second showroom strengthens our foothold in the region.’’

He added: ‘‘ With 105 per cent growth, we are confident that with a partner like Jaycee Automobiles in Ludhiana, we are on our way to pole position in Punjab ”

Chandigarh, June 24
Shriram Transport Finance Company targets an AUM (Assets under Management) of Rs 42,000 crore in two years.

Aiming to scale up further to an AUM of Rs 50,000 crore by 2020, the non-banking finance company is looking to diversify its portfolio.

The company will now be aggressively financing tractors and construction equipment. Announcing plans to plans to enter the debt capital market through secured non-convertible debentures, Rajiv Garg, vice president of the company, said that he expected the majority of the company’s business growth to continue to come from finance of pre-owned trucks.

However, he added a new crucial growth driver would be financing of construction equipment and tractors.

The company has already floated Shriram Equipment Finance to look after the new segment.

Garg added that over the last four years, Assets under Management of the company grew from Rs 12,092 crore in 2006-07 to Rs 36,182 crore in 2010-11.

“We plan to expand our marketing network by partnering with private financiers , involved in commercial financing,” he said.

He added that the majority of business for the company comes from South India (30 per cent), followed by Western states (25 per cent), and North India ( 15-20 per cent).